Coinbase and Crypto Fans Suffer a Major Blow

By: Luc Olinga

Coinbase  (COIN) , the most popular crypto exchange in the United States, has big ambitions. 

These ambitions focus on conquering new countries, which would allow the crypto exchange to expand its audience and also increase its revenues and profits at a time when crypto trading volumes are slowing in the United States.

One of the cornerstones of this international expansion is India, a country of 1.38 billion people. 

"Namaste, India! 🇮🇳" CEO Brian Armstrong solemnly declared on April 4 in a blog post. He accompanied the message with the country flag.

"India has built a robust identity and digital payments infrastructure and implemented it at rapid scale and speed. Combined with India’s world class software talent, we believe that crypto and web3 technology can help accelerate India’s economic and financial inclusion goals," Armstrong wrote, announcing that he's been touring the country.

Abrupt Halt 

He added that Coinbase will host a crypto community event on April 7 in Bangalore to discuss the future of crypto and web3 in India. 

"This week, I’ll be joining members of our executive team as we meet with students from top universities, crypto founders, Indian entrepreneurs, and crypto evangelists," the entrepreneur said. 

"India is a magical place, and I believe crypto has a big future here. We’re excited to help build that future, and this event is an important step," he concluded.

A few days later, on April 7, Coinbase announced that crypto investors could now use the country's online retail payments system to transfer funds to the platform. This system is known as United Payments Interface or UPI, and it's a government-regulated payments system. 

It's run by an entity, the National Payments Corporation of India that's part of the country's central bank. 

But three days after the announcement, Coinbase suspended transfers of rupees, the local currency, to its trading app. The company did not give a reason for this abrupt stop but it could be that the reason is due to the fact that the authorities were not aware of Coinbase's projects. 

Crypto Investors Affected

The impact is colossal since Coinbase customers now find themselves without the means to fund their accounts with rupees.

"As of April 10, buys are currently disabled due to an ongoing issue we’re experiencing with the UPI system," Coinbase said on its Indian website. "We’re working hard to resolve the issue, and we advise that you check your account periodically to see if the issue is fixed."

It continued: "Note that we don’t support another payment method to buy crypto at this time. Thank you for your patience and understanding."

Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Coinbase misadventure illustrates the difficulties of the crypto sphere in India where lawmakers last month adopted a 30% tax on profits generated by cryptocurrencies. In doing so, lawmakers treat crypto as the profits generated by gambling which are taxed to the maximum.

Crypto Investors Affected

The impact is colossal since Coinbase customers now find themselves without the means to fund their accounts with rupees.

"As of April 10, buys are currently disabled due to an ongoing issue we’re experiencing with the UPI system," Coinbase said on its Indian website. "We’re working hard to resolve the issue, and we advise that you check your account periodically to see if the issue is fixed."

It continued: "Note that we don’t support another payment method to buy crypto at this time. Thank you for your patience and understanding."

Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Coinbase misadventure illustrates the difficulties of the crypto sphere in India where lawmakers last month adopted a 30% tax on profits generated by cryptocurrencies. In doing so, lawmakers treat crypto as the profits generated by gambling which are taxed to the maximum.

Original article: https://www.thestreet.com/investing/cryptocurrency/coinbase-and-crypto-fans-suffer-a-major-blow